Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Getting your road tax online.... maybe

When applying for Road Tax online step 1 of 5 says "If you have the reminder… Enter the Reference Number that can be found on the front of the reminder in the yellow box on the right hand side (also known as the Vehicle Licence Application/SORN Declaration)."

They conveniently provide a picture for you and circle where the reference number will be (see image to the right). My yellow box doesn't have a reference number though, instead it directs me to the website to errrr... get my tax disc online.

Hi - my name is Andrew Rhodes and I'm Head of Electronic Customer Services for DVLA and I am responsible for the online car tax system referred to here.

It might be helpful if I explain how you can tax online without the 16-digit reference number you mentioned - the V11 form and the website advise you that you can use the document reference number (14 digits long) from your Registration Certificate (logbook) if you don’t have a reference number on your V11 form, or you haven’t got a V11 form.

To be able to use the system you need to have a new-style computerised MOT (if your car is more than 3 years old). Until April 2007, not everyone had one, so we only 'invited' people whom we knew did, giving them the 16-digit number. We issue between 3 and 4 million of these forms a month (44 million a year), so we have to start producing them 6 weeks in advance. This means that some people who have obtained a new MOT in the meantime wont get the invitation. To try and help these people, we added guidance on the forms that did not have the reference number.

In the very near future, almost everyone will be issued with the reference number on the V11 form we send out to you. However, you can continue to use the logbook reference number as well (bottom-half of the website).

All you need to tax online or by phone is one of those reference numbers and a card to pay with – DVLA will find everything else.